In case you ‘re wondering whether Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson will bring the infamous C-post Daytona 500 car to Talladega Superspeedway next month, let me help. No. Team owner Rick Hendrick told [ESPN’s David Newton] on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway the #48 car that NASCAR deemed illegal, the one that cost him 30 days of ‘hell’ fighting the penalties, will be laid to rest in the woods surrounding Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s property in Cleveland County, N.C. It ‘ll be in Junior’s car graveyard with the mangled #42 that Juan Pablo Montoya drove into a jet dryer to cause a two-hour delay in the Daytona 500 and more than 50 other cars Earnhardt calls ‘yard ornaments.’ So is this an admission that the car was illegal, even though chief appellate officer John Middlebrook overturned the 25-point deduction for Johnson and six-week suspensions to crew chief Knaus and car chief Ron Malec? No. Hendrick’s just not willing to test the governing body and possibly create another 30 days of turmoil.(ESPN)(4-6-2012)
